6:00am Karratha: On the road

It's before dawn and three long road trains are humming in the transport yard.

For the next 40 hours I'll sit alongside Jonesy in her truck travelling the 1,800 kilometres from Karratha to Kununurra near the Northern Territory border.

Jonesy will have about 4,000 kilometres after that as she heads to Brisbane for a major truck show.

Before long we leave in convoy. Following behind Jonesy's pink Mack truck is a Volvo FH16 prime mover headed for a service in Port Hedland and a Western Star triple stretching 53.5 metres on its way to collect rubbish from the mines.

The cabin is surprisingly large with sheepskin-covered seats. A container to hold pens sits to the right of the steering wheel then there's the wide window with an ever changing view.

Behind the seats it is surprisingly large with a bed, television and refrigerator.

Curtains can slide the entire way around to shut out the outside world and give privacy when parked. It's set up well.

"I think it's a good thing to do for the experience because normally in Germany I'm doing just normal office stuff and working for the government and that's the opposite of everything, you can't compare it," she says.

"It's so cool. So I normally clean the toilets and everything, and when I'm in Germany I would never do that. I would never have that experience.

"I'm pretty excited about that. I'm here since one week so everything is pretty new so ask me again in two months and I will say something else," she laughs.

"There's not much in the way of amenities for us truckies out here. It's basically what you've got in the truck or you go hungry or unwashed. You've got to be prepared in the outback."

He says the bureaucratic requirements of the industry can also be an issue.

"Regulation is always going to bury us," he says.

"You are dealing with government bureaucracy that doesn't really understand the transport industry and they never will.

"They keep telling us all these things about fatigue management but everyone is different about how long you can drive.

"At the end of the day when your body is going to wake up regardless, no matter how many hours you should be asleep for or not, there's no point lying there because a piece of paper says you can't go anywhere."

It's still early but Jonesy's already been hard at work retightening straps to the cargo safe. There's grease across her cheek.

"It's great, especially young girls, just giving them the thought that they can absolutely be a truck driver and they can drive these trucks when they get older."

"Australia has a shortage of truck drivers nationally, and in the past women haven't really had the opportunity to access the trucking industry because unless you have a father or uncle or somebody you know you actually can't get a leg into the industry.

"We've been very fortunate enough to have the support of Volvo Group Australia where they've provided a couple of prime movers for us specifically to help women and young men get into the industry, to give real life work experience in our company in Karratha so that after 160 hours or a month they are employable."

She's trained more than 60 women into the job in the past three years.

If there is still a macho culture, I haven't seen much evidence of it in my two days on the road.

"As you experienced at those last couple of truck stops that we stopped at, the awesome men want to come over and have a chat with us," Jonesy says.

"They don't treat us any differently to how they'd treat their mother or sister. They want to have a chat and see how you are going."

"There's big bumps and cut outs. The road surface is not smooth, so when you hit it with your prime mover and you are followed by trailers you get a really big bounce, so its not a very enjoyable ride on this road."

Sure it's a little uncomfortable to sit through but Jonesy explains that poor road conditions and a lack of facilities are a dangerous mix.

"There are a lot of factors that contribute to fatigue ... if we could have some funding spent on better roads and facilities, especially rest areas which is my thing I go on about all the time.

"With no facilities you have a truck driver that needs to sleep on the side of the road that is a metre-and-a-half away from the road, where vehicles are passing every couple of minutes, you can't have a good sleep.

"So when you wake up you are fatigued and you drive on roads that are quite difficult to negotiate and you eat in restaurants that have pies, pasties, sausage rolls and chips."

Jonesy says the "whole culture" needs an overhaul.

"This really is an awesome job and it's got so many fantastic attributes so we just need to fine-tune those things that we have all been, every single truck driver on the highway have been harping on about.